What is Chamberofgods?

Chamberofgods is an Indian supplement brand built by lifters who were obsessed with strength training long before there was a business plan. It started with a single product, an ammonia smelling salt for powerlifters, and grew out of a simple idea: be resourceful, solve your own problem, and then share the solution with others.

Who am I?

My name is Shivin Sharma, and I am the CEO of Chamberofgods. Back in 2017, I was a hotel management student who cared about only one thing consistently: strength training.

That same year I read my first mainstream business book, “Rich Dad Poor Dad.” The biggest lesson I took from it was that you do not need to be rich to start; you need to be resourceful and treat business as an art. That lesson unlocked something in me, even though I did not yet know what shape it would take.

Stage 1: The Hustler Phase

About a month after reading the book, I hit what I call “Stage 1 – The Hustler Stage” of entrepreneurship. In this stage, you do anything ethical to make money. It may not be scalable, but it is powerful when you are starting from zero, restarting, or stuck in a tight spot.

My first real hustler moment came when I put half my room rent at stake to pull off a small business gig. The result: around ₹30,000 net profit plus a brand-new printer, which became my first “capital expenditure – machinery.” That single move showed me that I actually enjoyed this game.

I did not do it alone. Two of my roommates, Ashish Singh and Parth Pangtey, helped me pull it off, which also made it my first informal partnership win. From that point on, I knew I had a new weapon: when required, I knew how to hustle. I had tried small hustles earlier in 12th standard, but they had not worked; this was the first time something clicked.

Over time, I did 7–8 such hustler businesses. None was huge, but each one taught me something about money, risk, and execution. Those experiments prepared me for the real inflection point: discovering a gap in the market around smelling salts for lifters.

Discovering the Smelling Salt Gap

Fast forward to my second year at IHM Mumbai, a college that has produced many strong personalities. Around this time, my oldest school friend, Raunak Khurana, showed me an Instagram account run by Rajat Dalal. That was the first time I truly saw what powerlifting was.

I realized powerlifting was a sport I could access. I had started working out at 15, so shifting from a typical “gym bro split” to serious powerlifting came naturally. I fell in love with it and started chasing numbers seriously.

Then came the injury. I had just figured out a deadlift technique that suited my body and had pulled 230 kg at 77 kg bodyweight, with a realistic plan to push towards 300 kg. Right when everything clicked, I suffered a herniated disc in an accident and had to take a four-month break from lifting.

That break turned into a blessing. During this time, I discovered smelling salts through Grind Gear, one of the first Indian powerlifting brands selling them. Their product cost ₹699, and I was low on cash, so I borrowed money from a friend to buy my first bottle. It was a big purchase for me at that time.

When I finally tried it, I felt something important: the product worked, but the value did not feel worth the price for someone in my financial position. They were early in their journey and still figuring out pricing, but I was in a unique position—I understood the lifter side and the hustler side.

So I did what came naturally: I reverse-engineered the cost of goods (COGS). Then I asked my father for funds. We had around ₹50,000 in savings that I used to invest in stocks, and I decided to redirect that amount into a new hustle: a smelling salt company.

From Strength Shoppe to Chamberofgods

That decision created my first serious brand, “Strength Shoppe,” focused on smelling salts. Over time, this early brand evolved into what is now Chamberofgods.

Our first product was an ammonia smelling salt called “Demigod Ammonia Smelling Salt.” Later, we had to rebrand it to “Onigod Smelling Salt” because the original name had trademark issues—classic first-time founder mistake, not checking trademarks properly. It was frustrating in the moment, but also funny in hindsight and a good lesson in how real business works.

From that single bottle of smelling salts, the brand that would become Chamberofgods was born in July 2023. What started as a lifter trying to solve his own performance problem slowly turned into a supplement company that now sells multiple products across our website and marketplaces.

What you can take from this

If there is anything to take away from this story, it is this:

• You do not need a perfect plan to start.

• You can be in a completely different field (like hotel management) and still build something around your real passion (like strength training).

• Hustler phases matter. They look small from the outside, but they build your confidence, your eye for gaps, and your ability to take calculated risks.

Chamberofgods did not begin as a polished brand. It began as a student, a book, a few hustles, a back injury, a borrowed ₹699, and a decision to fix a problem for lifters like me.